by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
The argument that baptism is a “work” but faith is not is not sound. There is far more work involved in faith than in passively letting someone immerse you in water. Think about it.<\/p>\n
Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). Think of the mental work involved in listening to the evidence of God’s message and “searching the scriptures<\/em>” to find out what is so (Acts 17:11). The process of coming to conviction involves assessment of your life and how it stands with God, assessment of the evidence for Jesus being the Christ, the Son of God, and whether the evidence supports that conclusion. The teaching process with the hearing and learning from the Father (John 6:45) involves “laboring” for the food that does not perish (John 6:27). Mental and emotional labor is, in this case, far more “work” than passively allowing someone to immerse you in water in Jesus’ name. In fact, when you have labored for the food that does not perish, the teaching is clear that you will receive remission of sins at a definite point of faith, namely, when you are immersed in the name of Christ (Acts 2:38-41; 22:16; I Peter 3:21).<\/p>\n You have faith in the operation of God, that He <\/b>will do the work of cutting off your sins when you are buried with Christ in baptism (Colossians 2:12). So, faith trusts God to cut off the sins when He said He would. The hard “labor” on your end is in the teaching and learning that brought you to call on God to operate as you unite with Jesus in baptism (Romans 6:3-6). God does the work of grace when your faith leads you to repentance and baptism. Baptism is the point of God’s <\/b>work. It is not a work of the law of Moses. It is not a work of merit that earns you anything. It is simply faith calling out for God to do His <\/b>work when He said He would, and you are simply calling upon Him and trusting Him.<\/p>\n Don’t forget that faith involves the labor of hearing and learning, sorting, and coming into the power of conviction. This is where your action is greatly involved and brings you into reconciliation with God.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton The argument that baptism is a “work” but faith is not is not sound. There is far more work involved in faith than in passively letting someone immerse you in water. Think about it. Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). Think of the mental work involved in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[53,1008,55],"class_list":["post-94420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-faith-alone","tag-faith-only","tag-works"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":86998,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/faith-plus-works\/","url_meta":{"origin":94420,"position":0},"title":"Faith Plus Works?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Faith-only advocates have actually worked hard to convince themselves that if you include any activity in faith, such as obedience, you have added \"you\" and your effort to Jesus' perfect and complete work. Yet, who is doing the believing? You are! How does faith come? It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61360,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/examining-christianity\/","url_meta":{"origin":94420,"position":1},"title":"Examining Christianity","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 12, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: II Corinthians 13:1-8 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Most religions in the world surround themselves in mysteries \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Followers are asked to accept things without full knowledge \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Only a select few are granted special insight \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But God\u2019s teachings are not like these religions \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0God challenges us to reason about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27880,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-faith-a-work-that-god-does-to-a-person\/","url_meta":{"origin":94420,"position":2},"title":"Is faith a work that God does to a person?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Recently someone told me that they believed that the work of God in John 6:29 means that God makes a person believe. I assume they think the Holy Spirit works in a person making them believe. I know that faith comes from hearing the Word of God but would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25215,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":94420,"position":3},"title":"What is Faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Hebrews 11:1-6 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Imagine a tight rope stretched across Niagara Falls. A crowd gathers around a man who pulls a unicycle out of a box. \u201cLadies and gentlemen,\u201d the man announces, \u201cmay I have your attention! In my hands is a unicycle. How many of you believe that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37081,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-be-100-sure\/","url_meta":{"origin":94420,"position":4},"title":"How can I be 100% sure?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am starting to build more faith but I am still not 100% sure that God exists. \u00a0I go to church and everything and I feel terrible to admit this. \u00a0How can I be 100% sure? \u00a0Are you 100% sure? \u00a0Will I ever get there? \u00a0I'm just scared that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89860,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/faith-and-evidence\/","url_meta":{"origin":94420,"position":5},"title":"Faith and Evidence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Shane Scott Several years ago, I decided I needed a hobby. I had many interests - basketball, fantasy baseball, and music - but I engaged in all of these pastimes with members of the church where I preached, or with fellow Christians in the area. I needed a hobby\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}